The List: 8 Sep 1995 (Issue 262)

Cathouse, Glasgow, 3 Sept. Who’d have thought in the fallout from the Pixies explosion, it would’ve been Kim Deal’s slice of debris to rocket skyward while Frank Black remains firmly rooted, straining at the stars? Don’t worry about Frank, though. The great American pulp trash sci-Ii novel surely waits to come bursting from his Biro. Kim, meanwhile, has stepped from the intravenous wreckage of The Breeders, with drummer Jim McPherson in tow, into the reverb valleys of, as she puts it, ‘The Eeyamps’.

Caught at this stage, with Deal’s hard-won experience and confidence combining with the genuine

enthusiasm of a band just starting out, The Amps’ playing has a vital edge. Mugging around like a schoolgirl who doesn’t want her photo taken, Deal grins, pulls on bottles of Bud, puffs away at cigarettes and ambles a dance around the mike stand, a party in her head. At one point commandeering McPherson’s side snare to beat out her own rhythm, Deal’s main instrument, aside from her guitar, is the delay she applies frequently to her vocal to occasionally astonishing effect. The music seems firmly split between sneering ‘rip her to shreds — with a razor’ swagger and slower rolls where the Deal voice surfs a heavenly wave, harmonising, somehow, with itself. The ‘quick — something’s about to happen’ nature of the concert is crystallised when The Amps go into a song they ‘haven’t written any words for yet’. Get your skates on.

Take Squeeze, Hiisker Dii and The Psychedelic Furs, stuff them in a blender and listen to the results over a Tannoy in another room with your lo-ti headphones on and you’ll be approximating the sporadic glories of Guided By Voices. Four Barmen with the bloke from Echo Records on guitar doing the Funky Gibbon to a set structure licensed from Ramone Inc. The voice of God response ‘SUCK MY DIGK’ to a request is pretty great, as are the blue lights and most of the set - but it begins to drag a bit and, oh yes, The Amps are champs. 0h dear, oh dear. (Damien Love)

[III— EOUINOX: THE EVENT 111

Royal Highland Showground, lngliston, 2-3 Sept.

It was to have been the rave to end all raves: Scotland's answer to Tribal Gathering. Three dozen DJs and Ms had been booked, two huge marquees erected, 12,000 tickets sold and the rave posses from Aberdeen to Ayr had been perfecting the techno shuffle for six long weeks of summer sun.

Then on the day it rained.

A downpour of such Biblical proportions that it threatened to engulf the site. But who cares about a spot of weather? Not the ravers, that’s for sure. By 5pm the site was half-full and both marquees bouncing to the banging breaks and lifting piano highs of tartan techno.

By nightfall the tents were bursting. When the American master of hardcore, Lenny Dee, took to the decks In the Eclipse Marquee - with a hanging set which occasionally slowed down to a mere 180bpm - it was under two inches of water.

Not that the lack of space or a dry dancefloor stopped the kids from going ape to The Rhythmic State. Their half-hour PA built to a climax with the new single, ‘llo 0.8. Allowedl’. TRS play cliched, poppy rave of the most derivative kind: whooping piano lines, Tiny Tears vocal stabs, a hanging four-

into the dark heart of house. Disturbing swathes of synth over a kicking beat left the older punters grinning in ecstasy. And not just because of the chemicals. With Ege Bam Yasi next up, the night should have built from there. But equipment problems meant that his acidic techno squelch never got past first gear. And a useless stack of speakers meant that you could actually hold a conversation on the dancefloor. Even technically superb DJ-Ing sets from lady Barbarella and Dave Angel couldn’t make up for the lack of decibels.

The Event 111 might have been cold (and that caused its own problems for many of the skimpily-clad youngsters), wet and subject to equipment problems. But it was never the wash- out which lesser organisers would have allowed the rain and heavy- handed policing to make it.

(Thom Dibdln)

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Concerts listed are those at major venues, for which tickets are on public sale at time of going to press.